The present invention relates to a rotating-type bezel apparatus suitable for use in a portable timepiece having a rotating bezel such as a diver""s watch, and to a portable timepiece having the rotating type bezel apparatus.
There is known a portable timepiece having a rotating bezel such as a diver""s watch having a bezel mounted to a case body rotatably around a central axis line of the case body and having recesses and projections at constant angular intervals along a peripheral direction thereof, and a leaf spring mounted to the case body elastically engageably to a recess of the recesses and projections of the bezel at a front end portion thereof to give a click feeling in rotating the bezel. According to a portable timepiece of this kind, the bezel is attached with a graduation in the peripheral direction, for example, at start of diving, the bezel is rotated to set an original point or a start point of the graduation of the bezel to a hand (for example, minute hand) position at a time point of starting to dive and the diving is started. In this case, a diving period of time can directly be recognized optically by reading the position of the minute hand of the timepiece or the like by the graduation of the bezel.
However, according to a conventional portable timepiece having a rotating bezel of this kind, when the bezel is exerted with an expected external force, there is a concern of rotating the bezel by releasing engagement between the recess of the bezel and the front end portion of the spring by pushing out the front end portion of the leaf spring from the recess by a side wall of the recess of the bezel. As a result, there is a concern that the diving period of time cannot accurately be known in diving.
The invention has been carried out in view of the above-described various points and it is an object thereof to provide a rotating type bezel apparatus and a portable timepiece having the rotating bezel apparatus in which there is not actually a concern of rotating the bezel unexpectedly after the bezel has been positioned.
In order to achieve the above-described object, a rotating type bezel apparatus of the invention includes a case body, a bezel mounted to the case body rotatably around a central axis line of the case body and having recesses and projections at regular angular intervals along a peripheral direction, a spring mounted to the case body to be elastically engaged with the recesses and projections of the bezel at a front end portion thereof to give a click feeling in rotating the bezel, and a stopper mounted to the case body movably between an engagement release prohibiting position for prohibiting to release engagement between the front end portion of the spring and the recesses and projections of the bezel and an engagement release permitting position for permitting to release the engagement.
According to the rotating type bezel apparatus of the invention, there is provided xe2x80x98a spring mounted to the case body to be elastically engaged with the recesses and projections of the bezel at a front end portion thereofxe2x80x99 and therefore, in rotating the bezel, a click feeling can naturally be given, particularly, there is provided xe2x80x98a stopper mounted to the case body movably between an engagement release prohibiting position for prohibiting to release engagement between the front end portion of the spring and the recesses and projections of the bezel and an engagement release permitting position for permitting to release the engagementxe2x80x99 and therefore, by setting the stopper to the engagement release permitting position, rotating the bezel to a desired position while giving the click feeling by the leaf spring, and setting the stopper to the engagement release prohibiting position to thereby prohibit to release the engagement between the recesses and projections of the bezel and the front end portion of the leaf spring when the position of the bezel finishes designating, the front end portion of the leaf spring can be maintained in a state of being engaged with the recesses and projections of the bezel and therefore, even when unprepared external force is exerted to the bezel, rotation of the bezel is always restrained by the front end portion of the leaf spring engaged with the recesses and projections of the bezel and therefore, there is not actually a concern of erroneously rotating the bezel. Therefore, when the bezel apparatus of the invention is integrated to, for example, a diver""s watch, even when unprepared external force is exerted to the bezel positioned to a desired time position before diving, there is not actually a concern that the bezel is rotated in diving and a diving period of time is not known.
The xe2x80x98recesses and projectionsxe2x80x99 of the bezel to be engaged with the front end portion of the leaf spring may be a xe2x80x98recess portionxe2x80x99, that is, a recess or may be a xe2x80x98projected portionxe2x80x99, that is, a projection or may be provided with shape mixed with both of them.
According to the rotating type bezel apparatus of the invention, typically, when the stopper is disposed at the engagement release prohibiting position, the front end portion is supported from a back face to make the front end portion of the leaf spring stay in the recesses and projections of the bezel and when the stopper is disposed at the engagement release permitting position, the stopper is disposed at a location remote from the front end portion to permit to detach the front end portion from the recesses and projections of the bezel. In this case, the stopper may be formed simply reciprocably between the engagement release prohibiting position and the engagement release permitting position to thereby prohibit the stopper from being brought into contact with the back face of the front end portion of the leaf spring at the engagement release prohibiting position to elastically escape the front end portion of the leaf spring. However, when desired, at least either one of the stopper and the leaf spring may be provided with a more complicated shape or structure to support a portion of the leaf spring other than the back face when, for example, the stopper is disposed at the engagement release prohibiting position.
Further, not only in rotating the bezel but also in changing the position of the stopper, the click feeling may be given. In that case, finish of positioning of the stopper to the engagement release prohibiting position or the engagement release permitting position, or start of changing the position of the stopper from the above-described position, can be felt as an actual feeling and therefore not only there is less concern of setting or bringing the setting erroneously but also a mechanism of forming the click feeling is necessarily accompanied by provision of more less moving resistance at the two positions and therefore, there can be minimized also a concern of positional shifting of the stopper per se erroneously.
At any rate, when the click feeling is given in positioning the stopper or in changing the set position in the rotating type bezel apparatus of the invention, typically, there is provided a resistance providing means for providing a resistance to detachment of the stopper from at least either one position of the engagement release prohibiting position and the engagement release permitting position, or arrival thereof to the either one position.
Here, the resistance providing means may be a combination of a projected portion formed at the stopper and a recessed portion form at the case body portion at a position of engaging with the projected portion of the stopper when the stopper is disposed at at least either one position of the engagement release prohibiting position and the engagement release permitting position, further, when desired, the resistance providing means may use a combination of a recessed portion formed at the stopper and a projected portion arranged to the case body portion at a position of engaging with the recessed portion of the stopper and elastically deviated to a face of the recessed portion of the stopper having an opening when the stopper is disposed at at least either one position of the engagement release prohibiting position and the engagement release permitting position.
According to the rotating type bezel apparatus of the invention, when rotation of the bezel is permitted by the stopper, the bezel may be rotated only in one direction or may be rotated in two directions.
In the former case, typically, the recesses and projections of the bezel comprises a recess and the leaf spring and the bezel are constituted such that when the stopper is disposed at the engagement release permitting position and the front end portion of the leaf spring is engaged with inside of the recess of the bezel, a force exerted from the recess of the bezel to the front end portion of the leaf spring by rotating the bezel in the opposed direction, bends the leaf spring in a direction of pressing the front end portion to the recess of the bezel to thereby prohibit rotation of the bezel in the opposed direction. Further in details, typically, the front end portion of the leaf spring is provided with an inclined portion in which the more frontward in the direction of rotating the bezel, the more inclined in a direction of being fitted deeply in the recess, and when the bezel is going to be rotated in the opposed direction, a force in a direction of raising (direction of erecting) the leaf spring, is exerted from a wall portion of the recess of the bezel to a front end of the inclined portion of the front end portion of the leaf spring, the inclined portion of the front end portion of the leaf spring is pushed into the recess of the bezel to thereby prohibit rotation of the bezel in the opposed direction. However, when desired, there may be provided other one direction rotating mechanism for prohibiting rotation in the reverse direction. Further, the direction of permitting rotation may be a clockwise direction or a counterclockwise direction.
In the latter case, typically, the recesses and projections of the bezel comprise a recess and the leaf spring and the bezel are constituted such that when the stopper is disposed at the engagement release permitting position and the front end portion of the leaf spring is engaged with inside of the recess of the bezel, a force exerted from the recess of the bezel to the front end portion of the leaf spring by rotating the bezel in respective directions, bends the leaf spring in a direction of pushing out the front end portion from the recess of the bezel to thereby permit rotation of the bezel in the two directions. Further in details, typically, the front end portion of the leaf spring is provided with a first inclined portion inclined in a direction in which the more frontward in one rotating direction of two rotating directions of the bezel, the more deeply the front end portion of the leaf spring is fitted into the recess, and a second inclined portion extended to incline relative to the first inclined portion from a front end of the first inclined portion in a direction of being remote from the depth of the recess. The first and second inclined portions of the leaf spring as well as a wall portion of the recess of the bezel are respectively provided with shapes by which when the front end portion is engaged with the recess of the bezel and the stopper is disposed at the engagement release permitting position, in order to bend the leaf spring to draw the first or the second inclined portion of the leaf spring from the recess of the bezel in accordance with rotation of the bezel in the one or the opposed direction, corresponding inclined portions are guided by wall portions of the recess. However, other rotation permitting or rotation prohibiting mechanism may be provided to permit rotation of the bezel in the two directions while giving the click feeling.
The rotating type bezel apparatus of the invention is typically used by being integrated to a portable timepiece such as a watch. However, when desired, the rotating type bezel apparatus may be integrated to other apparatus.